Benchmate Client Case Studies

The case studies available for download are examples of our clients testimony, to the value Benchmate brings to their maintenance operations. We will be posting case studies on an ongoing basis, so please check back often! View all Case Studies.

Southern States Cooperative

Reaping benefits from planting Benchmate’s PDA Module, nation wide.

As one of the nation’s largest farmer owned cooperatives with over 300,000 farmer owners, and 1,200 retail locations in 23 states, SSC is constantly assessing its maintenance processes and performance, to enhance service and boost the bottom line. Maintenance Staff and Supervisors are enjoying the benefits of Benchmate’s PDA Module within their plants, nationwide. Read more.

American Gypsum – Eagle Plant

American Gypsum, the Nation’s 5th largest wallboard producer, utilizes Benchmate to ensure maximum uptime for their 24/7 operation. Keeping conveyor systems, crushers, hammer mills, feeders, mixers and more operable at all times is our #1 goal. Located between Denver and Grand Junction, Colorado, American Gypsum – Eagle Plant. Read more.

Southern States Cooperative

From Roanoke, Virginia to Park City, Kentucky, Southern States Cooperative (SSC) Maintenance Staff and Supervisors are enjoying multiple benefits with the nationwide implementation of Benchmate’s PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) Module within their plants.

“Morale has been boosted since implementing the PDA system. The guys turning the wrenches feel like they are part of the process now. They are constantly finding merits to Benchmate’s PDA Module, we hadn’t even considered. Our Maintenance Supervisors are now gathering real-time information from all jobs logged. We’ve boosted productivity by performing more focused PM’s, thus eliminating most of the 10 minute breakdowns that happen throughout the day.” says Clint Westergard, Plant Engineer – Southern States Cooperative.

As one of the nation’s largest farmer owned cooperatives with over 300,000 farmer owners, and 1,200 retail locations in 23 states, SSC is constantly assessing its maintenance processes and performance, to enhance service and boost the bottom line.

Their investment in Benchmate’s PDA Module furthers a commitment to improving maintenance decisions, activities and investments with streamlined communication and access to real-time equipment data; right in the palm of their hands.

“Now that everyone sees how the plants benefit from the PDA system, it helps our maintenance team manage our business head-on, versus, fighting problems as they present themselves. We are getting a tremendous benefit in cost justification for projects/capital and Preventive Maintenance optimization. We now know where we should be spending our time,” says Westergard.

Houston Fuel Oil Terminal Company

Houston Fuel Oil Terminal Company (HFOTCO) is the U.S. Gulf Coast’s largest black oil facility with 11 million barrels of tankage and 2 million barrels under construction. HFOTCO has been storing, blending and moving residual oil for carbon black manufacturers, refineries, bunker suppliers and oil traders, as well as, storing and delivering crude oil and feedstock to area refineries since 1979.

Maximum equipment uptime is essential to efficient operation, and HFOTCO needed an easy-to-use, powerful CMMS that provided accountability, history, tracking and could grow with their business.

“We researched several other CMMS programs and in 2003, we purchased Benchmate. It was by far the easiest program to use, and that was the biggest factor in our purchase decision. We have several highly skilled maintenance guys who aren’t real computer savvy. Benchmate is used by four full-time maintenance guys, and anywhere from 10-20 employees submit trouble calls to it.” says Mickey Franco, Info. Tech. Coordinator.

HFOTCO utilizes multiple software programs throughout its facility and understands the necessity for superior technical support.

“Benchmate support is outstanding! We’ve had a few issues with the software or a new release. We make one call to Bob and he has a patch to us within days. I work with a lot of software on a daily basis and no one provides that kind of turnaround. I’m working with one software that has not fixed a problem I reported over a year ago.” says Franco.

American Gypsum – Eagle Plant

Located between Denver and Grand Junction, Colorado, American Gypsum – Eagle Plant – operates around the clock to produce more than 113 miles of wallboard each day. Because American Gypsum recognized how important it was to keep their wallboard operation running reliably and smoothly, they set out to find a maintenance management software system that would improve how their maintenance department tracked equipment history.
It was the maintenance department that embarked on finding the right tool to replace their manual maintenance process that included log books full of hand-written equipment records. The result of the search by the team was the selection of Benchmate. Chosen for its simplicity and intuitive interface, Benchmate was immediately implemented and made available for use by both maintenance and production personnel with little training required.

On the production side, operations personnel began to utilize the trouble call function which is accessible to all crew foremen on the plant floor. Trouble calls are issues that may arise at any time and require the attention of the maintenance department. Rather than having to track down a mechanic or electrician, production personnel simply enter information pertaining to the problem area directly into Benchmate.

Maintenance Superintendent Bill Baxter attests that Benchmate has enhanced the way his team performs maintenance.

“We use Benchmate extensively to schedule our planned maintenance – it is the ‘heart’ of our maintenance management activities,” states Baxter.

AFL Telecommunications

In 2005, AFL Telecommunications – a Fujikura business – was looking for a maintenance solution to manage scheduled preventive maintenance (PM) work.

“We needed a system for scheduled maintenance for all plant systems,” states Brad Roberts, Facility Engineering Manager. “Benchmate was our choice because it was a low cost solution and cost-effective to meet the needs of our 15 maintenance professionals responsible for our large plant.”

Roberts continues by expressing how simple and easy to use Benchmate is as a system to communicate with maintenance. With the trouble call functionality, any one within the plant can instantly notify maintenance of any identified issues that need attention.

“The PM functionality was a top priority for us”, continues Roberts. “We have fully embraced Benchmate and will soon expand our use of the system. Our team and company are well-pleased with the results we’ve achieved from having Benchmate in place in a short period of time.”

Freightcar America

Gene Wyss, Plant Manager with Freightcar America – the largest North American manufacturer of aluminum railroad freight cars used to haul coal – has been an advocate of Benchmate for many years having used the system in several different manufacturing environments.

“Benchmate is an excellent system for preventive maintenance (PM) management and spare parts tracking,” states Wyss. “The system is easy to work with and has an outstanding search capability. The equipment database houses all assets for easy tracking and multiple sort options. All PM information is straight-forward and simple to follow without any complexities. With Benchmate’s reporting capability, you can easily see what maintenance has been performed on plant assets including use of spares and important cost information. I’ve used the system for years and will continue to rely on Benchmate for my maintenance management needs.”

Pinal Creek Group

Site Manager John Trimble has been around Pinal Creek Group since project start-up and for the past seven years has been responsible for operations and maintenance services with his team from Jacobs Field Services. Before the treatment facility even began operations in the late 1990’s, Trimble knew they needed a maintenance system to manage their work processes, provide complete histories on all equipment and full documentation of work performed.

The team uses Benchmate for trouble calls, work orders, inventory control and preventive maintenance. Reports are generated to review completed jobs each month including planned versus scheduled preventive maintenance, cause coding and procedural documentation.

“Benchmate has been a great tool for us,” Trimble continues. “Our PM functions with very little time spent on scheduling which improves our efficiencies. The system is easy to navigate and extremely user-friendly. We continue to be pleased with the reliability of the system and the great response we receive from Benchmate’s customer care group.”

DTE Biomass Energy

Since 1988, DTE Biomass Energy has been doing their part to help limit greenhouse gas emissions by operating landfill gas recovery systems that capture the gas and put it to productive use. This process involves asset-intensive equipment that must be properly maintained in order to keep DTE’s equipment available for their 24/7 operations.

To ensure their equipment assets – some valued in excess of $1.5 million per piece – and associated components are maintained on a routine basis, DTE schedules and manages all maintenance activity in a maintenance software system called Benchmate. All PM’s across four locations are scheduled and managed using Benchmate. Schedules and completed work histories are easily reviewed at any time to know the exact status of maintenance activity.

“Prior to using the Benchmate system, our maintenance tracking and management was handled manually,” says James Pena, director of pipeline and quality products at DTE Biomass Energy. “Having Benchmate helps us focus on jobs that must be done. Because they’re scheduled in the system, we cannot ignore them – and that provides accountability that we need to be better organized and more efficient.”

Benchmate also effectively addresses work performed by operators such as greasing and oiling, as well as any work conducted by outside contractors. This often includes work tasks that are executed during shutdowns and scheduled overhaul maintenance.

Routine reporting provides facility managers and other management with key data related to all maintenance work – whether scheduled, in process or completed. Reports are often used to review materials used for jobs, who performed the work and when the work was done.

Oregon Department of Corrections

The Oregon Department of Corrections is responsible for the management and administration of 14 adult correctional institutions including minimum, medium, and maximum security prisons. Recognized nationally among correctional agencies it is focused on safe prisons, a safe workplace, and changing offenders’ criminal behavior through evaluation, education, treatment and work. It is required to track maintenance data and costs across all facilities. Download Case Study.

The Department of Corrections implemented Benchmate in 1999, and in 2012 they added Benchmate’s Satellite PCs to meet these requirements.

“Securely performing and tracking maintenance and related costs at all our facilities and prisons was our ultimate goal. We’ve achieved that with Benchmate’s Satellite PC. It gives us the flexibility we need and we’ve deployed it in separate trade shops including: Plumbing, Electric, and Fabrication. It’s easy-to-use, our management team, maintenance staff, and inmates now track all types of Maintenance Management tasks and data including: Preventive Maintenance, Required Maintenance and Project tracking, as well as, Work Orders and Trouble Calls. We also use it to track costs on a variety of community projects,” says Laddie May, Facilities Services Operational Specialist 2.

Benchmate’s Satellite PCs are an ideal solution that allows each trade shop to operate independently of Benchmate CMMS except when jobs are uploaded and maintenance activity is downloaded to Benchmate CMMS.

Benchmate Systems

In 1985, Benchmate began developing what has resulted in a long-standing reputation for delivering value-based maintenance management tools to meet the demands of clients in a wide-range of industries. Today, that focus remains unchanged as companies continue to trust and rely on Benchmate to address and resolve their maintenance management challenges.
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